VINCE N S 
40. 
PACHYGLOSSA 
(LEGGE ’ S FLOWER -PECKER) 
ADULT MALE 
Length 4.1 to 4.2 Inches; wing 2.3,to 2.4; tall 1.2; tarsus .2; middle 
toe and claw-.22; bill to gape .45; - 
FEMALE 
LEngth 3.2 to 4.1 Inches; wing 2.15 to 2.3. 
DISTRIBUTION 
When this little bird was brought to the notice of the scientific world 
by Dr Sclater in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" in 1872, the 
credit of its discovery was given to myself, as the specimens which I had 
sent him from the South of Ceylon were considered to be the first ever pro¬ 
cured. Mr Hugh Cuming, however, a well known collector of Sinhalese birds, 
had, as noticed by Mr Holdsworth in the "Ibis" for 1874, brought home a male 
of this species, which was I conclude overlooked among the skins acquired 
from him by the British Museum, and was not identified until after its re¬ 
discovery by myself nearly thirty years afterwards. I am glad therefore to 
be nble to give the true history of its discovery to my Ceylon readers, and 
ensure the credit of its being given to Mr Cuming. 
It is, as far as we know, essentially a bird of the heavy rainfall dist¬ 
rict. My first specimens were procured in 1871 in the Kottowe forest near 
Galle, where it is abundant* I subsequently found it in other adjacent 
jungles, in the fine timber reserves near Oodogamma, on the South bank of 
the Gindurah, and in the Kukkul Korale, more particular! in the Slngha Ra¬ 
jah or Lion King forest. Thence Northwards its range extends into Saffra- 
gam, where I obt ined it in the Kuruwite Korale, in the lower Peak jungles, 
and found it even as far North as Avisawella. 
Mr Bllgh shot in 1873 a fair number of .specimens in Kotmalie, to which 
district, lying at the base'of the Western slope of the main range, it must 
extend through MaskftIlya and Dlmbula, in both of which valleys it will doubt¬ 
less some day be found. Its habitat is, I suspect, limited to the damp fo¬ 
rest region, consisting of the South-west of the island, the Southern coffee 
districts, Saffragam, and the Western portion of the Central Province as 
above indicated. 
It may perhaps be found in Uva, but will not, I should say, extend into 
the low country of the Eastern Province. 
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